domo_the_eagle wrote:I share the same sentiment as TP, except for the season being a TOTAL waste.

I cannot remember a time where fans and the club were at total odds with eachother.

Towards the end of last year i supported the clubs decision to get petrie as an insurance policy and also to get mitchell as player/coach. However 2 months into the season it was apparent that our midfield as a collective just arnt good enouhh and i do feel like we have missed a golden opportunity to blood younger players.

I just hope the club has had a chat to priddis and made it clear that there may be a good chance he will be spending next year at WAFL while the club goves opportunities to guys like partington.

And it showed in the turnout for the game on Sunday as the commentators mentioned the crowd was down a little on a perfect day for football. Support for WC is all over the place as the Fans show their confusion as to what the hell is going on inside the club. I reckon a memo, to the fans from WC, would go a long way in reconciling the widening gap that is appearing. Here is a question..Should the clubs (all of them) be more upfront with their supporters or is there a reason they don't? Is Simmo a little hamstrung in the way he goes about things because of someone looking over his shoulder? In your support Domo, of the recruitment of Petrie and Mitchell, i looked at it differently and my first reaction was..what the hell are we getting two old blokes for? we have enough already who are struggling. I believe that is already starting to show as i have never seen Mitchell getting caught so much and Drew is starting to show some cracks also. Maybe should have grabbed Rockcliffe while he wanted to move?

Attendance may be down, but to use the Derby as a point of emphasis is a tad unfair seeing as it was a Freo home game, thus meaning it was their members not turning up not ours.

As far as your question regarding should clubs be more upfront, I reckon they should, but is it going to happen? Not likely. I do believe there needs to be more done in regards to injury reporting. Like Kennedy for instance. Are you telling me our medical staff stuffed up their diagnosis of him for several weeks in a row? I'm a big follower of the NFL these days and they have gone above and beyond in ensuring clubs are reporting injuries correctly. They have to document and report just how much training a player does during training days (whether it is 50% 75% or full participation). And their is penalties for clubs who don't report correctly. It helps keeps fans up to date and it also helps kick out the bookies trying to dig around for inside information as everything is now transparent. I honestly don't get what the Eagles got out of saying Kennedy was pushing for selection for 3-4 weeks when he clearly wasn't going to play.

domo_the_eagle wrote:Its no secret that the clubs hopeful of doing a western bulldogs. Reality is we had our chance in 2015 to do a 2008 hawthorn.

This is actually not completely impossible, but it's extremely unlikely, I'd say no more than 5% when you look at all the things that need to happen.

If the eagles are in the 8 and-

- Naitanui is available for finals, with adequate conditioning to permit him to play 4 weeks as first ruck.- the list generally is healthy and Yeo, McGovern and Kennedy in particular are all fit and in form.-Sheed and Duggan maintain solid midfield form.-there aren't unstoppable super teams in the finals -we avoid the G for the first 3 weeks and then encounter an inexperienced non Melbourne team in the GF- (GWS would be the perfect grand final opponent, given the age of their list, there is a fair chance they will completely lose their shit on the big day).

-there is an extremely small possibility that West Coast might jag a flag, on the back of its quality talls at either end and 4 weeks of NN dominance out of the centre, which would be very hard for teams to plan for or combat given how weak west coast has been at clearances so far this year. But the chances of all those things happening together is incredibly low, and in the long term, gaining that chance has to be balanced against the opportunity cost of a middle of the ladder position in the draft and 70+ games of experience that Petrie, Mitchell, Priddis and Lecras' selections this year robs from younger players who we desperately need to develop to cover the major weaknesses that the side has.

domo_the_eagle wrote:Its no secret that the clubs hopeful of doing a western bulldogs. Reality is we had our chance in 2015 to do a 2008 hawthorn.

This is actually not completely impossible, but it's extremely unlikely, I'd say no more than 5% when you look at all the things that need to happen.

If the eagles are in the 8 and-

- Naitanui is available for finals, with adequate conditioning to permit him to play 4 weeks as first ruck.- the list generally is healthy and Yeo, McGovern and Kennedy in particular are all fit and in form.-Sheed and Duggan maintain solid midfield form.-there aren't unstoppable super teams in the finals -we avoid the G for the first 3 weeks and then encounter an inexperienced non Melbourne team in the GF- (GWS would be the perfect grand final opponent, given the age of their list, there is a fair chance they will completely lose their shit on the big day).

-there is an extremely small possibility that West Coast might jag a flag, on the back of its quality talls at either end and 4 weeks of NN dominance out of the centre, which would be very hard for teams to plan for or combat given how weak west coast has been at clearances so far this year. But the chances of all those things happening together is incredibly low, and in the long term, gaining that chance has to be balanced against the opportunity cost of a middle of the ladder position in the draft and 70+ games of experience that Petrie, Mitchell, Priddis and Lecras' selections this year robs from younger players who we desperately need to develop to cover the major weaknesses that the side has.

it would be the biggest jag in history if this happens. Like you said not entirely unrealistic, just a very low probability of occurring.

It would be interesting to see the list management decisions made at the end of our season. Whether we go around again with the experienced cattle approach, go a hard rebuild, or add one or two more youngsters but still go around again.

domo_the_eagle wrote:Its no secret that the clubs hopeful of doing a western bulldogs. Reality is we had our chance in 2015 to do a 2008 hawthorn.

This is actually not completely impossible, but it's extremely unlikely, I'd say no more than 5% when you look at all the things that need to happen.

If the eagles are in the 8 and-

- Naitanui is available for finals, with adequate conditioning to permit him to play 4 weeks as first ruck.- the list generally is healthy and Yeo, McGovern and Kennedy in particular are all fit and in form.-Sheed and Duggan maintain solid midfield form.-there aren't unstoppable super teams in the finals -we avoid the G for the first 3 weeks and then encounter an inexperienced non Melbourne team in the GF- (GWS would be the perfect grand final opponent, given the age of their list, there is a fair chance they will completely lose their shit on the big day).

-there is an extremely small possibility that West Coast might jag a flag, on the back of its quality talls at either end and 4 weeks of NN dominance out of the centre, which would be very hard for teams to plan for or combat given how weak west coast has been at clearances so far this year. But the chances of all those things happening together is incredibly low, and in the long term, gaining that chance has to be balanced against the opportunity cost of a middle of the ladder position in the draft and 70+ games of experience that Petrie, Mitchell, Priddis and Lecras' selections this year robs from younger players who we desperately need to develop to cover the major weaknesses that the side has.

it would be the biggest jag in history if this happens. Like you said not entirely unrealistic, just a very low probability of occurring.

It would be interesting to see the list management decisions made at the end of our season. Whether we go around again with the experienced cattle approach, go a hard rebuild, or add one or two more youngsters but still go around again.

It would probably require a 5-6 finish and at least one home final. Travelling four weeks straight, especially to Sydney is a tough call (if the equation isn't tough enough)

CouchPotato wrote:Good game by the defenders, JK and Darling, that's about it.

Masten, Lecras and Priddis stick out like dogs balls as out of form and not playing an effective role in the team.

on the plus side - looks like Jetta has found a role and set a standard in the team. I really enjoy when he gets the ball because you know something attacking is going to happen.

Masten looks devoid of confidence. He won't go with the first option and is getting caught with the ball. LeCras and Priddis must still be nursing injuries. You wouldn't think there are any excuses for not including Partington this week (unless its match ups). He missed three weeks of footy before this week so he is ready to go.

HH wrote:Where is the line in the sand when we definitely know that we won't impact finals and Simmo & Co get a members' and supporters' leave pass to tank er play the kids to get ahead of the curve?

I reckon if we get rolled by Collywobbles this week there will be a start of the line being drawn. We play well at Etihad and should we get over the line it will only bolster the glimmer that we have, so i am on the fence. I hate it when we lose but unless something miraculous happens (like the Sydney turnaround) i cannot see us changing the lineup and start blooding more youth if we win. I live in hope that background work is being done with the upcoming kids that we have and Simmo will bring em in and we will go on to win the flag, i live in hope, i live in hope, i live...........................

HH wrote:Where is the line in the sand when we definitely know that we won't impact finals and Simmo & Co get a members' and supporters' leave pass to tank er play the kids to get ahead of the curve?

There are 2 KPI's for me that are the line in the sand and shows we are just not good enough.1. Dropping home games against average teams.2. Poor percentage.

Take a look at the years we made grand finals and how many home games we lost. In 1991 (0), 1992 (2), 1994 (1), 2005 (1) and 2006 (1) We hardly ever lose home games to Interstate teams at home when we are a premiership contending team.. even when we are not premiership contending we rarely drop home games. This season we've already lost 3 and guarantee that will be at least 4 by the end of the season. No side fears coming to Perth anymore.

Also the percentage tells the story. Our percentage is a woeful.. 102.1% That ranks at 22nd out of our 31 years of history for percentage. The only 9 years worse than that are the only 9 years we missed the finals.

If that doesn't show you the reality of how bad we really are nothing will.